My Network TV revamping format, dropping five-night telenovela lineup

UPI News Service, 02/02/2007

My Network TV's telenovela format, which asked U.S. viewers to tune in nightly for an hourlong installment, will be trimmed back.

ADVERTISEMENT

The next version of My Network TV, scheduled to launch March 8 on stations covering 95 percent of the country, includes two soap operas already in the pipeline -- "American Heiress" and "Saints & Sinners," which stars Maria Conchita Alonso, Robin Givens and Mel Harris.

Each will air weekly in two-hour blocks instead of five nights a week, the Chicago Tribune reported.

"Unfortunately, I don't think anybody has the time to watch one particular show five nights a week in prime time," said Greg Meidel, My Network TV president. "You have too many viewer choices."

Besides the two nighttime serials, the network -- owned by News Corp. -- will feature movie nights and a series chronicling the lives of mixed-martial-arts fighters.

The telenovelas, developed by News Corp.'s Twentieth Television, were used as a stopgap solution for stations orphaned when CBS and Warner Bros. announced they were shutting down UPN and the WB networks to launch the CW last fall.